Imagine a society where no human works. All work is automised. And humans are fed and given healthcare as req. Mating mechanised. Will there be a revolution?
3 Answers
Somehow in this situation, the death drive or death instinct, which is normally directed outward as aggression, must be directed in some other way or it could "go to ground" and be directed against the self; the self would discharge tension back to the peace of the womb which at an extreme could be suicide. Could aggression be discharged, along with libido, the sex drive, in play? Possibly so. Children do it.
This is the beginning of the model, Freud's model in "Civilization and its Discontents" described by Marcuse here: https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/eros-civilisation/ch01.htm You can see how Marcuse works that out in his later writings from his book "Eros and Civilization" onwards. If we do have the tremendous use of robots and automation, then somehow we must have a guaranteed income, or there will be social unrest and a lack of consumptiom. From this point forward we can see the importance of your question. Of course, countervailing forces may require all hands on deck (something like full employment) in a continued fight with nature due to global warming and so on.
Summary: You ask a very sophisticated question. What will happen to the aggression if we do not need dominance any more in order to survive, in a world post-scarcity? Far from revolution we could have mass suicide; aggression directed at the self. Can play be a solution to this problem? As far as I know, Marcuse is the only one who even tried to deal with this question in his book, "Eros and Civilization", 1955. Caveat/2018: we may have further need of human labor & outward aggression in an attempt to ameliorate climate change, etc. Economics, the problem of scarcity, would be briefly "solved" only to plunge back into scarcity again.
I think you should read Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. It explores the answer you might be searching for.
Based on the fact that humans are not happy with just health care and not working, there would eventually be demonstrations, riots, and possibly revolts - and/or mass suicides.
